Water quality workshops are continuing across the province, and another producer meeting took place in Piapot on Wednesday.

Construction and design of dugouts has been a key topic of discussion at these meetings. Duncan Spenst with the Water Security Agency says producers planning to build a dugout need to consider what their water supply will be used for, whether for watering livestock or irrigation, and its location is important, too.

"You want to ensure that it's located in an area that's going to receive ample runoff, whether that's through rainfall or snowmelt," said Spenst. "You definitely need to have that runoff volume there to fill your dugout and provide the volume of water that you need."

Spenst adds dugouts can be constructed to a capacity of 5,000 cubic metres before requiring approval from the WSA, but many dugouts used by producers now are well below that limit.

"A lot of times producers talk about the old PFRA regulation-sized dugouts, and those old regulation-sized dugouts are all well under 5,000 cubic metre volume of storage," he said.

Producers are also reminded that the application deadline for the Farm and Ranch Water Infrastructure Program, which can assist in the cost of constructing dugouts, has been extended to September 30.

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